Roasted Acorn Squash w/ Sage, Pine Nuts & of course, Butter

Baked acorn squash was never a dish that I obsessed over. Because of my love of butternut squash, acorn squash always seemed to hide in in the shadows of my other squash love affairs. It wasn’t until I started food blogging that I really understood the appeal of these cute acorn shaped globes.

After 2 holidays of food blogging, I read a mountain of blog posts about roasted or baked acorn squash and every single post was dripping with amazing butter, sugar and more butter and sugar. I was visually hooked and put this dish on my mental notes of “must.try.soon”. Now I wish I had tried it sooner because now I’m asking: Dear Acorn Squash. Where have you been all my life?!

I won’t make such a broad generalization that this recipe is so EASY.FAST.and SIMPLE (although that’s the truth) because there is one step that can be intimidating. If you’re a home cook who doesn’t own a good sharp knife, beware.

Sliced squash and fresh sage

The only difficult part about preparing acorn squash (or most hard winter squashes for that matter) is that it’s as hard as rock when it’s raw. One can probably use it as a lethal weapon and if thrown with enough force, the acorn squash can probably take our your enemy pretty quickly. Personally, I’ve never toyed with this thought, although hard squashes do make great paper weights.

Butter, sage, sugar. Oh yeah.

If you can get past the initial cuts with a good sharp knife with safety and all your 10 digits still attached to your hand, this acorn squash recipe is as easy as pie and will be a sure winner to any holiday meal.

The oven roasting aromas of browning butter, sage and toasted pine nuts had me humming Christmas songs in the kitchen. Yes, this silly little dish put me in a good mood. Go figure. Before I knew it, the squash was finished and I was eating the warm, flavorful slices like candy.

I’m obsessive about acorn squash now and it took me this long to finally discover their flavor and cooking appeal. I’ve found a new squash love and Dear Butternut Squash, please don’t be jealous.

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Recipe Note for Salt: All recipes containing salt are based on kosher or sea salt amounts, not table salt. If using table salt, reduce the amount used to taste.

Thanks for the shout out you two! Have to say we were never ones to be obsessed with winter squash either, until we made it simply; now we cannot get enough. The recipe you share of ours is a fave around our house, the tahini is a perfect match with the roasted squash – try it with roasted kabocha as well. Wonderful.

I wanted to report back on this recipe: fabulous!! I served it to company, and am passing the recipe to friends and linking it to my family on my blog. I sharpened my knife and put on my samurai face to whack the squash, but it really was not that difficult to do. We all agreed the peel was just fine to eat. Once it is cooked it shrinks a bit and (sort of) softens. We all loved the crunchy bits of caramelized sugar, too. It’s a keeper!! Thanks.

Thanks for the warning about the skin. That’s my main problem with squash– My knife is sharp but there’s a thickness to squash that seems to make cutting it difficult and awkward.
I think I may try this with a kabocha. That’s my squash of choice. It’s so sweet though, maybe I’ll reduce the sugar a little.

I love the idea of roasting acorn squash with sage and pine nuts! A while back I roasted the squash and stuffed it with a variety of spices, veggies and cheese – and then kind of forgot about it and didn’t use it again. Your post inspired me to get an acorn squash when I go grocery shopping tomorrow and try this recipe! My friend just directed me to your blog since I recently started one of my own and I’m really enjoying reading your posts! Your photographs are amazing too btw I’ll definitely be a regular reader from now on!

As a kid, I ate a lot of acorn squash because my mom grew it in her garden. The torture-your-sister-playing field would have been evened out had I known the potentially lethal benefits of its mass and trajectory.
I’m a good shot….my older brother wouldn’t have stood a chance!
😉

Thanks Prerna,
We love our cooktop and oven and actually enjoy keeping them clean. They work so hard for us, it is the least we can do. Plus restaurant habits of cleaning virtually daily makes keeping them nice and pretty fairly easy.